Personal Rituals
Any ritual can help if done with the right frame of mind. Some creative
rituals are downright strange. One writer had a
particular record of Spanish flamenco music he listened to before he
started to write. Mort Walker (the cartoonist) soaks one foot in hot water
and the other in cold. John Steinbeck wrote letters to his publisher in a
notebook as a warm-up to writing "East of Eden" (These letters make very
interesting reading for the creative writer). Douglas Adams (of
'Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy' fame) is very fond of taking baths to
get fresh ideas.
The ritual itself is usually not directly related to creative thinking but
is a means of focussing the mind on producing ideas and is a very personal
thing. What works for one person will probably not work for another.
Remember that a ritual is an external method, whereas creativity is
personal and individual.
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Last updated: 4th August 1999